...10.31...Friday Update...

...this is another project that was actually finished before we went up to Sissie's last weekend...

...with all the cutting in and the tray ceiling complete...the Man put the final coat of Palest Pistachio on the walls...

...jsut working his way around the room...

...using the 18" roller it was pretty quick...

...and the transformation is astounding...

...the very last bit of the awful putty coloured wall is gone...

...repeat with the same colour for a second coat and we were done...

...able to put everything back in a fresh new room...

...and we didn't configure things the same as before...we moved the bed to the wall facing the window...it's really nice waking up that way...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend...Happy Halloween!

...10.30...Delicious Vegan Food we ate...

...y'all probably saw this one coming...it's the Chickpea Meatloaf from Connoisseurus Veg...that the Man had bookmarked earlier...

...she says to put everything into the food processor and process...but I wanted a bit more texture than that so I processed everything separately...

...and mixed it together in a big bowl

...added the breadcrumbs...

...and we had a fragrant loaf...

...packed it into a parchment lined loaf pan...

...smoothed the top and popped it into the oven...

...a little while later we added the tomato topping...it got a little bit scorched on one side...

...but it produced a beautifully formed loaf that came out of the pan easily...

...it sliced perfectly...I got the crusty end piece...of course...we call that the 'heel' on a loaf of bread...and we served it with mashed potatoes and canned peas...of course...this is the exact meal that we used to have when I was growing up...and I'm fond of canned peas...Mom used to get the April Showers Tiny Peas...do you remember April Showers Peas...

...OK...I just went down a rabbit hole...with very little success...and AI search gave me the following:

There is evidence from a 1967 grocery ad that a brand named "April Showers" also sold canned peas. A December 28, 1967 newspaper advertisement for a grocery store chain shows "April Showers PEAS" listed alongside other food products like Le Sueur mushrooms and Maxwell House coffee. This confirms the existence of the canned pea brand in the 1960s, though information about the specific company that produced them or their market share is limited in the search results. Most other historical references to "April Showers" products relate to the Cheramy line of toiletries, which was popular in the 1940s-1960s. The grocery ad snippet is the key piece of information confirming the existence of the canned food brand

...so I finally found a copy of that ad...

...and if you're like me and had trouble finding April Showers peas...I enlarged and circled it...I remember the white and green can label and wished that I could find a photo of it...but sadly the interwebs have failed me this time...and that doesn't often happen...haha...

...anywhoo...that took longer than the whole post...haha...the texture and flavor of this vegan meatloaf is perfect...

...and just like when I was little...I slathered mine with ketchup...

...what delicious food have you been eating lately?...

~Have a lovely day!

...10.29...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I guess I can show you Sissie's presents in the making now that she finally got them...just my standard double crochet dish cloth in a non-white...this is actually the recycled yellow yarn that I made for Our Airman's Wife's Minecraft vest...but didn't end up using...

...and I made some more plarn...

...to make a little recycled onion bag plarn flower for a new dish scrubbie for her...

...she guessed both of these gifties without opening them...haha...

...got out the traveling card...wrapped everything up...apparently using the ironing board as a counter...haha...

...and y'all saw her open the gifties already...

...I did this little project right before we went up to visit Sissie...I wanted to make the girlies little candy corn headbands for Halloween...

...just double crocheted two head sized strips in candy corn colours...

...identical...of course...

...and stitched them together with a little twist...

...and popped them in the mail...last week...they should be in AK before Halloween...

...I started the second Hippy Dippy vest...

...exactly like the first one just using a different blue...royal where I'd used aqua on the first one...

...made the two granny squares...and bordered them in black...

...added the front vest part in yellow...

...and the side panels continuing the rainbow pattern...

...stitched together...

...then I did the same for the aqua blue one...

...the front panel has the yellow red orange for the side...

...and the back panel has the green blue and I added a strip of black as I needed another colour...

...and I'm playing yarn-chicken again with the aqua...I'm going to go up in the attic tonight and see if I can find more aqua yarn in the stash for the peplum part of this one...

...they're both size 4-6...so they're exactly the same size...I just wanted to make them a little bit different so each of my girlies could 'own' one of them...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...10.28...the rest of the weekend...

...so...Sunday afternoon...after we got home...

...first of all...I'll show you all the loot we brouht back with us...

...Sissie's delicious blueberry jam...THREE jars...

...two bags of Scuppernong grapes...

...a stuff bag of kiwis...

...Sissie said to put them all in the fridge and just put a couple on the counter each day to soften...and they would keep for a long time like that...so that's what we're doing...

...sweet peppers...

...and a mix of hot and banana peppers...no way to tell which are which...haha...

...some ripe and ready to eat figs...

...then I headed out to the square foot garden to check on things...a few more baby peppers were born...hoping they'll have time to mature before the first frost...

...and I picked another good handful of cowpeas...I'll be pulling them up soon...probably this weekend...they've slowed down a lot and we may get a frost anytime now...

...then we had to do a bit of shopping...of course...

...let's see...not a big shop at all...but I got a bag of sugar to turn the grapes into jam with...and the Man had bookmarked a Conoisseurus Veg chickpea meatloaf recipe he wanted to try...trying Stuffmarts pizza dough and sauce for another cheap pizza alternative...we'll see...the rest is just regular...

...so with a few hours left in the day...I decided to go ahead and tackle the grapes...also...no room for them in the fridge...haha...

...I gave them a bath...

...and plucked off all the stems...we weren't very careful pickers...

...and I had two beautiful jugs of Scuppernong grapes...

...and I put the chickpeas to soaking...

...and started cooking and mashing the grapes...

...they look pretty yucky at this point...

...then I mashed that goop through a fine mesh seive...

...the juice and pulp were almost equal...

...I put the juice in my nutmilk bag...

...and hung it up to drip...

...squeezed out the last bit of juice...

...and got that simmering on the cooker...

...added a bunch of sugar...

...and just like that we had delicious fresh Scuppernong jam...I searched the interwebs for why it turned red...not that I minded...I was just surprised because I was expecting a sort of 'blonde' jam...and the interwebs say it's caused by oxidation...still very delicious though...

~Have a lovely day!